Travel Goods Group Takes Show Into Own Hands
By Heidi Genoist -- Tradeshow Week, 3/20/2006
Las Vegas—The March 7–9 Travel Goods Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center might have marked the Travel Goods Assn.'s 59th time gathering manufacturers and retailers of luggage, crescent pillows and ear plugs. But it was still a first.
After years of outsourcing show operations, the TGA this year took over the job itself.
Founded in 1938, the association has always owned and operated the exhibition, which, until the late 1990s, was the Luggage and Leather Goods Manufacturers of America Show.
But, according to TGA President Michele Marini Pittenger, the association several years ago hired a "decorator," as she called him, to do floorplans and general contracting. The consultant, in turn, subcontracted labor, material handling and other services to GES Exposition Services.
Pittenger declined to name the consultant, but according to the last several years' editions of the Tradeshow Week Data Book, the firm was Everest Tradeshow Management.
Last year, however, the association decided to put the full job of general contracting out to bid and cut out the middleman.
"We wanted to take the show to the next level," said Rob Holmes, vice president of the association, who now oversees show operations. "We did an RFP, talked to the two or three biggest guys, and found that the one with the most hands-on service and highest level of support was going to be GES."
Holmes couldn't be happier with the change, which he said has given exhibitors better service while saving them an estimated 15 to 20 percent on material handling charges. In addition to turnkey booth packages, GES offered Travel Goods exhibitors its Transportation Plus deal: Those using GES for inbound and outbound freight got a 10-percent reduction on drayage.
The change was seamless to exhibitors that spoke with TSW, most of whom were unable on the showfloor to say what their final costs would be.
"We've been in the show 13 years, and this is the best one ever," said Chris Delgado, vice president of sales for Briggs & Riley Travelware. "This is the only way we can get all our product in front of all our customers in one fell swoop."
The association has benefited from the changeover in general contracting as well, saving $40,000 to $50,000 on show services by Holmes' estimation.
"It's been extremely successful," said Pittenger. "Before, we were one step removed from GES, and now we have such a good relationship. Our staff has learned so much from them."
Dependent as it is on the health of the travel industry, the 380-member association fell on hard times after Sept. 11, 2001.
The industry is "back now," said Pittenger. "It took us three years, but we're growing again."
The six-person association management team seems to have found the right formula. The show grew from 250 exhibitors last year to 258 spanning 110,000 net square feet this year. Although final attendance numbers were not available at press time, Pittenger said 1,800 buyers — 600 more than last year — had pre-registered for the event.
